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The Power of Personal Attitudes

Knowledge Base

by Roy Posner and MSS

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The Nature, Source of Our Attitudes Reversing Negative Attitudes Attitudes and Accomplishment Attitudes and Life Response (i.e. Instantaneous Success) Opinions, Preferences Other (Articles, thoughts, etc.)

 

The Nature, Source of Our Attitudes
(main)

On Attitudes
Attitudes are vital/emotionalized thoughts about our existence.

Attitudes can be divided into those that we have towards life, towards ourselves, and towards others.

Attitudes can be positive or negative.

An ongoing positive attitude is the goal we seek. It leads to greater accomplishment and attracts positive conditions.

Most of our difficulties in life are rooted in our wanting attitudes.

A wanting attitude reversed attracts sudden good fortune.

 

Attitudes in Our Human Makeup
A simple analysis of our fundamental human makeup reveals a wide-spectrum of being, ranging from a most unconscious material substance to a most conscious subtle substance. Our being ranges from the material body to the vital sensations and emotions, to mental thought processing, beliefs, values, and pure thought, to the spiritual parts of mind, and on to the realm of the pure spirit itself.

Our attitudes fit in between our emotions and feelings of our vital being, and the thought processing and understanding of our minds.

Attitudes of Our Emotions
Our (mental) views of different people and things are organized into ideals, values, opinions, beliefs and sentiments. Our emotions are organized into feelings, attitudes and motives. (MSS)

The Source of Attitudes is the Mental Part of the Vital Plane
We consist of there planes of consciousness; the physical, the vital/emotional, and the mental. There is the spiritual beyond these. Within each plane there are Subplanes that actually reflect the other essential three planes, for a total of nine planes, excluding spirit.

Our attitudes are formulated in the mental part of the vital/emotional plane; which we designate as plane 4 of 9. This is plane of human consciousness where emotions (of the next level) are processed into emotional thought, the emotions' perception of knowledge. It is thus where our attitudes, life intelligence, and higher emotions lie. It is the center of our vital skills. At this plane the mental element emerges strongly in the vital consciousness and gives a higher direction and organization to the expression of the vital energies. One way that expresses is though our emotions.

Life reflects on the outside the inner attitudes you have on the on the inside. Life for you is in essence a reflection of your inner perceptions of the world. We can surely see the causality between such negative attitudes and the world around us. If we dislike our boss, there will be tension and friction as a result. This is a direct cause and effect relationship that is logical to our minds. What is not so logical however is the sudden, magical ways life responds to such changes in attitudes. We call this phenomenon where life positively, suddenly, abundantly, and miraculously responds to our inner change of heart and emotion, "Life Response."

Attitudes from Opinions
An attitude is born when an opinion is endorsed by the emotions. (MSS)

Subjective Opinions as Root Cause of Negative Attitudes
Non-objective, subjective conclusions and beliefs about facts of information are our opinions about those facts. An opinion is not based on objective truth, but on a subjective judgment that may or may not be true.

-Our opinions are the root cause of our negative attitudes. When these opinions are reinforced by our feelings and emotions, our attitudes are born.

-A negative attitude takes shape when our subjective, non-fully rational and logical opinions are endorsed by our vital emotions and feelings. In a positive attitude, the opinions are "less-opinionated," as our perceptions are more in touch with the inherent truth of things.

Analysis of an Attitude

• Attitude is one of opinion and vital urge.
• Opinion is a mental experience based on what the mind knows.
• Vital urge is the energy based on vital habits.
• Vital energy is physical passion sublimated.
• The physical IS at No. 9. [see this]
• It is touched by the vital at No. 8.
• It acquires skill at No. 7.
• The skill becomes passionate or the man develops passion for that skill at No. 6
• At no. 5, the passion giving up its physicality becomes pure vital energy.
• That vital energy is directed by No. 4, the vital mind.
• That direction is endorsed by the opinion of the mind. (Opinion must be similarly analysed)
• Both together are attitude. (MSS)

P,V,M Values -- i.e. motives, attitudes, opinions
Attitudes are vital values, opinions mental values, motives physical values. (MSS)

 

Attitudes vs. Values
Our personal attitudes and our personal values appear quite similar. However, on closer analysis we see a distinct difference. For one, an attitude reflects more of our vital behavior and action, whereas our values reflect more of our mental beliefs, which may or may not express through our behavior. For example, when we say that I am tolerant or intolerant, it is expressing a positive and negative attitude regarding one's own tolerance. However, when I say that I believe in tolerance or open-mindedness, then I am expressing a value. In that way, a value contains a conscious mental recognition of the thing -- as an ideal subscribed too; whereas an attitude is a less conscious vitalized opinion expressed through our behavior and actions.

It is also interesting to note that one may value tolerance and still be intolerant! A perfect value would be integrated into one's behavior, not just one's belief system; i.e. the value of a belief in tolerance would be reflected in our tolerant vital behaviors and actions, i.e. as a positive attitude. 

A value practiced and applied through our attitudes, behaviors, etc. is a skill of life whose origin is of the spirit.

Acquisition of Attitudes
We acquire our attitudes through our parents as we are raised, in our interaction with others and the environment, through the genes we inherit from pervious generations, and through the challenges and difficulties of life.

Three Types of Attitudes
-We have identified three major categories of attitudes -- those that express our essential state of being; those that express our relationship with others; and those that reflect our relationship with life outside ourselves.

-Each one of us has our own unique blend of positive and negative personality traits, including helpful and harmful personal attitudes.

To see a list of Human Attitudes expresses positively and negatively, click here.

Article on the Power of Personal Attitudes

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Reversing Negative Attitudes
(main)

Attitudes is Problem
The main problem is in our wanting attitudes. 90% of our difficulties are rooted there.

On Attitudes in Life
Perhaps our greatest stumbling blocks are in our attitudes. In our attitudes lies our greatest barrier to success in life. We can trace our positive and negative attitudes towards others, towards, things, towards ourselves, and towards life. Each person can make the effort to overcome their own predominant negative attitudes. This will lead to becoming a better person, and enable greater accomplishment and joy in life. When a person changes a negative attitude, often we witness an instantaneous positive response from life.

Change an Attitude to Make Life Instantly Respond

We are filled with attitudes acquired from our family, friends, and the environment. They are also in the very fiber of our being, inherited through our genes. Many of our attitudes are fine, while others are less than stellar. However, if we can identify a bad attitude, and make an effort to change it, we will not only raise our consciousness, but life will suddenly respond with unexpected bursts of good fortune.

A salesperson was intimidated about meeting a very large customer. He felt that the effort was a waste of time since the company was too large and could never be penetrated. As it turned out, he didn't get the sale. However, a number of months later, he changed his attitude about approaching such larger-type customers. The very day that he changed his attitude, the very same customer, who turned him down months earlier, gave him a huge order.

As we see, changing a negative attitude has an amazing way of attracting positive conditions from life. We call this phenomenon "life response." It is a power available to us every moment of the day, meaning that our ability to evoke the miraculous is always at our disposal.

The Sublime Result of Turning an Attitude Positive
The other day I was driving along down the highway, when I turned on my radio. I tuned into a show that gives career advice, which is on every weekend. I listen to the program on occasion, admiring the host's insights into many matters, but sometimes being put off by a certain line of thought he occasionally drifts into.

This time as I began to listen to the show, I caught myself and decided not to indulge my annoyance with his occasional outbursts, and remain still in my feelings. Within a few seconds, he began to speak of matters I had never heard from him before, including the power of self-givingness, of not trying to force your ideas on others, the importance of listening, and so forth. I was utterly astonished that he would say such things, for he had never expressed such sentiments before when I was listening!

I was once again privy to the life response power of controlling a wanting attitude. At the point we withdrew an annoyance or misgiving, positive conditions suddenly present themselves. Not only does it come in ways in ways you would never have imagined, but a sweet richness envelops your person and you are left with the thought that life would be infinitely sublime if you took to such efforts all of the time. 

Reversing a Negative Attitude
The process of reversing a negative attitude would occur by shedding our subjective, false opinion about an object, and replacing it with the objectives truth of things. As this broader and more accurate knowledge takes shape in our minds, our negative attitudes would be obliged to change. When our vital emotions and feelings withdraw their support for the old opinions, and begin to support this new, objective view of things, the negative attitude would be fully cancelled.

Two Inner Approaches that Will Catapult You to a Whole New Level of Success

Man complains that he is not as successful as he would like, yet does not understand that his inner condition is what directly blocks further accomplishment in life. There are at least two major approaches to resolving this problem. One is to look at negative circumstances occurring outside one's self, and make the necessary corresponding inner adjustment. The other is to do an evaluation of one's inner condition in life, find what is wanting, and make the necessary change. Either will attract instantaneous good fortune from the world around us.

In the first approach, I identify a negative circumstance that is happening in my life, and I relate it to a wanting attitude or behavior within. I then change that negative, and as a result, life will suddenly respond with good fortune. This is the principle of "inner-outer correspondence" in action; that if you change the inner, life will suddenly respond outside ourselves in a positive manner. For example, one woman who saw that her ill-will towards another had precipitated negative circumstances in a completely different area of her life, decided to change her feelings towards this woman. She actually came up and congratulated him on winning a big company prize. As a result, not only did she create good will with this person, but the organization in which they all worked suddenly bestowed a very expensive gift to every employee -- including the woman who changed her attitude! This is one approach to vast accomplishment, beyond one's current status.

The other approach is to "take inventory" of one's self, identify several wanting qualities, and make the persevering effort to overcome them. For example, I evaluate myself in such areas as level of cleanliness and orderliness, level of skills, negative attitude or harmful assumptions, bad habits, whether or not I am psychologically strong, whether the work I am doing is really what I want, whether I fully accept what life demands of me, whether I have a clear direction in life, whether I am emotionally balanced, and so forth.

I then conclude that my living and work space are completely disorganized, that I have no focus in my life (I am scattered in my intentions), that I procrastinate, and that I tend to be unpunctual. I then develop a comprehensive plan to overcome these, and carry it out with a passionate and determined effort. Life then suddenly responds miraculous-like with instances of good fortune.

It should also be pointed out that if we open to the spiritual Force at each point, we can literally move to the top of our field in very short order -- e.g. in months instead of years or even decades. Thus, in these ways, life becomes a never-ending series of instances of "instantaneous miraculousness." I call this phenomenon "Life Response." It is a great secret currently being revealed to the world.

How to Spiritually Overcome Negative Attitudes
We tend to think in a negative way under two broad classification- insecurities and fear of failures.
As a first step, Mother says if you can recognize that you are thinking in a negative way- don't argue with it, don't analyze it, don't defend yourself against it, you just cut it off. The moment you recognize that you're thinking a negative thought, simply cut it off and insert a totally different thought into your mind. Appa says that in a different way, “whenever such thought comes-think of Mother”-which is consecration.

Secondly recognize it why it is coming. Mother says we do not even know what kind emotion we have. If we can name our emotions correctly it is half won-for example-we understand anger as irritation, irritation as annoyance, annoyance as dejection, dejection as rejection etc. Behaviors and habits cannot be “shifted” by determination alone. It can be changed only by self-conscious approach by analyze what kind of personality we are. For introspection purpose; if you extend that-negative thought to its limits- at certain point you may find that how ridiculous it is and may even become a laughing stock. But note that it is only to analyze your character and you should not give strength to those thoughts.

Taking opposite of that thought, images, and positive outcome in beliefs and initiating deeds based on that, and based on the truth behind that -is “shift”. (Ramesh, MSS)

On Attitudes
Take but three of your negative attitudes and turn them around. That's all you have to do. Your life will change forever. Everything else can be irrelevant.

The hard part is not shedding one's negative attitudes, but discovering what they are in the first place.

Ego-reversal and Right Attitudes
When we move from an ego-supported conscious to non-ego, our negative opinions, false beliefs, etc. tend to break down, we perceive become more open to the truer truth of things, which in effect causes our negative attitudes to dissolve, which under the right conditions can suddenly elicit a powerful positive response from life.

Levels of Overcoming Negativity Toward Others
There are three points to overcoming negativity towards another, such as bad will, anger, jealousy, disdain, etc. First, refrain from verbally expressing it (that's at the physical plane). Second control your emotions about it (that's at the vital/emotional plane). Third, empty your thoughts of it (that's at the mental plane). Start with the physical plane aspect of the negativity, and move your way up to the vital/emotional plane next, and then lastly the mental plane. Total transformation of the negativity occurs when you are able to turn the conflict into a positive at all three planes. If you do that you can yourself become a transformed person.

We can have bad will towards another in three ways that correspond to our three essential levels of our being -- at the physical, the vital/emotional, and the mental. When we have build will for another at the physical level it seems to express in our very nature, in the very fibers of our bodies, almost as if it were natural and second nature. One needs to only look at the present conflict in the Middle East to see the intense, visceral hostility that is there in their physical consciousness of its leaders. It expresses in their actions and deeds. It is as if one were born feeling that way, and expresses in their very movements, actions, and deeds. No thought or emotion needs to invoke it. If you have such a bad will toward another it must absolutely stop now and forever. Nothing is more important in your life; there is no greater barrier to accomplishment, success, and happiness in life.

At the next level up, the emotional/vital level, is where most people experience and express their bad will toward others. At that level we have a sensation, an emotion, a passion of bad will towards another. How many of us have not related to another in such a way? A woman feels a continuous distain or emotional conflict with her boss or coworker. A man is miffed by something a friend has said holds onto this irritation for a long time, and feels it welling up in him from time to time. Another individual holds a 30 year grudge against a relative. This visceral ill-will can be held deep in the emotions, and expresses more or less intensely in one's feelings. If one has such ill-will in the emotions, one must shed it as soon as possible. Also, if you sincerely make the psychological effort to shed such feelings, life will suddenly respond positively in kind. Opportunities and good fortune will appear from out of nowhere; and from the most unlikely sources! For example, the woman who had hard feelings towards her boss was somewhat shocked when her boss suddenly started acting sweetly and kindly, which was not in his normal nature, after she had give up all her bad will towards him.

Finally, there are those who have shed negative emotional feelings, yet still feel a vestige of bad will in their thoughts. It just kind of pops into the mind from time to time. If it does, one simply needs to catch it and stop it in its tracks. This is the easiest to control, but still needs to be shed.

Method to Overcome Negative Thoughts and Feelings
We can try a little experiment. Simply observe all negative thoughts and feelings in a one hour period of time. Write them down. Try it again, and see if they repeat. Also, see if you can tie it to a negative or limiting part of your being; such as false knowledge, limited judgments, bad attitudes, harmful desires, stupid impulses, foolish actions, and limited beliefs, sentiments, or personal values. What an exercise that would be!

Quality Not Liked in Another
If there is a quality you don't like in another, detach yourself from your irritation and bother. If you examine yourself, you will be able to identify a parallel or mirror-image of the perceived negative quality in yourself. (This phenomenon is often seen in the relationship between parents and children.) Minimally make the feeling toward the other person positive. Maximally understand the corresponding or mirror image attribute in your own nature, and them make an effort to change it for the better.

Getting at the Root of Anger
Anger is hard to catch, but if you can, correlate the object of your anger to something nagging at you within that has nothing directly to do with the object of anger. Change that, rather than continue your anger outward in any way. Actually, the first rule of anger is to never have it, and if you do, stop it immediately; and thereafter check within yourself to see what is really bothering you, and make an effort to change that limiting or negative quality or aspect or capacity within yourself. This is the way to peace; for the individual or the nation.

 

Negative Life Response to Negative Attitude

Negative Life Response
If you think of someone or some group in a negative manner (i.e. with negative feeling), you will almost be sure to have a negative life response somewhere thereafter to this expression. In that sense we can trace all negative responses in life that befall us back to such negative feelings, actions, etc.

Untitled
Expressing a negative thought, such as a mischievous, unpalatable idea to others, will attract negative life response to the perpetrator a short time thereafter

Small Attitude Cancels Great Opportunity
Many can recall such instances where a small attitude cancelled a great opportunity. (MSS)

 

Other

Feeling Superior to Another
If you look down upon a person because you are endowed with one superior quality, know you do not have several skills the other person has. A good example of this scenario is described in Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice.

Ill-Will in Pride and Prejudice

Negative Attributes Of Kin, Ourselves
Many of the attributes we dislike in our children we have in ourselves. Many of the attributes we don't life in our parents, we have in ourselves. Sometimes the attributes not liked manifest in different ways in ourselves, in our children, in our parents. They have the same root, however, just manifesting either the same or somewhat differently.

Untitled
"True courage belongs to the person who voluntarily gives up his fondness for having enemies. An unawakened man clings desperately to his enemies, for without them he would feel empty, unimportant. He fears the loss of the agitation supplied by enemies, for he is deceived into thinking that agitation is an exciting way of life. Can we give up one enemy today, whether a person or stubborn machine or cloudy day? We can do that much in order to express the courage for conquest." (The Daily Guru)

Outgrowing Group Negativity
When friends and associates gather and mock those who are weak, infirm, or vulnerable, it is an indicator of their own common insensibility. It is part of why Nature has brought them together; to outgrow it.

Small Men's Small Attitudes
Small men enjoy being small. Their minds travel in small attitudes. The range is not only comfortable but gives pride of possession. When they occupy power they exercise it with a vengeance. (MSS)

Change an Opinion
Change one opinion of yours, a miserable life becomes a happy life. (MSS)

True Inner Silence
I have heard from many devotees that though they want harmony with others their efforts end in failure with the other persons provoking quarrels and picking fights even when the devotee keeps silent. The other person could be the spouse, another colleague at work spot or another devotee they meet at the center or even a neighbour.

Very often the failure comes because the physical silence that the devotee practices is not backed by true inner silence. The devotee though not openly quarrelling will be criticizing the other person in his or her mind all the time. This silent criticism sends out vibrations of disharmony all the time which the other person responds to and provokes what the devotee thinks is an uncalled for quarrel. But it is the vibration coming from the devotee that is causing the mischief. We may take rotten food away from the dining table so that others do not see them and put them away in the kitchen. But the smell of rotting food floats from the kitchen and enters the dining hall and disturbs people. Silent criticism is like rotten fruits and disturbs the other person just as effectively as open quarrelling. Life is far more subtle than we think. What we do not speak out is sensed by life as vibrations and they are just as real to life as spoken words.

In P&P Elizabeth has silently criticized Darcy so many times throughout the story. Suddenly out of the blue she finds Lady Catherine visiting her and showering a rain of abuse on her leaving her bewildered. How will she ever know this is what she gets as life response for the incessant silent criticism of Darcy that has been going on her head for so many months. She may never see the connection. But at least we devotees should know this connection and see that we do not commit this mistake when we strive for harmony with others.

Let any devotee who wants true harmony with others stop this silent criticism and then he or she will see the results. (N. Asokan, MSS)

 

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Attitudes and Accomplishment
(main)

Thoughts & Attitudes and Our Success, Failure
Our thoughts and our attitudes determine the results of our actions. Mind is the determinant of our successes and our failures. (MSS)

Attitudes and Accomplishment
Attitudes have a significant positive or negative effect on one's ability to accomplish in life.

Shifting from Outer to Inner Right Attitudes for Success
Success arises from shifting our reliance from the outer world around us to our own inner being, relying on right attitudes, rather than on external sources of support and assistance.

On Attitudes in Life
Perhaps our greatest stumbling blocks are in our attitudes. In our attitudes lies our greatest barrier to success in life. We can trace our positive and negative attitudes towards others, towards, things, towards ourselves, and towards life. Each person can make the effort to overcome their own predominant negative attitudes. This will lead to becoming a better person, and enable greater accomplishment and joy in life. When a person changes a negative attitude, often we witness an instantaneous positive response from life.

The Right and Wrong in Attitude and Acts
The right or wrong does not lie in the ACT, it dwells in one's attitude. (MSS)

Right and Wrong Attitudes for Accomplishment
For the purposes of accomplish, there are no right and wrong attitudes. There are only attitudes that assist accomplishment and those that prevent or retard it. A negative attitude, no matter how justified by events, prevents the free and unrestricted flow of energies required for accomplishment the way a red traffic signal stops the flow of cars at an intersection and prevents its free, uninterrupted movement down the street. Positive attitudes are like a string of green lights that enable you to travel at a steady speed for block after block without slowing or stopping. Open-mindedness, positive thinking, expansiveness, and willingness to change are green lights for accomplishment. Doubts, suspicions, fears, pessimism which is passed off as "realistic thinking", shrinking from what is new or challenging are red lights, which no matter how justified by past experience or current circumstance, prevent the conversion of energy into force for higher accomplishment. (MSS)

Sincere Personal and Spiritual Growth through an Organized Plan
"The golden RULE is not to achieve, but to preserve what is achieved. We have to observe ourselves very closely and explain to ourselves the nature of our acts. We always think of the ideal to which we should reach, which is good in itself; but let us know that it is only a thought. From where we are to where we should go there are a great many steps. Let us know all these conditions and find out what is the immediate next step. If one is to act, if one is to do the right thing, if one is sincere to himself, all that one can do is know this next step and take it. Rationally that is the only thing he can ever do. The rest he can only talk about."

This is the process of creation for the aspiring spiritual individual. Goals of self-improvement considered and perceived, knowing the strategies to get there, and acting on them is that process. It is for those serious in his endeavor. Then this person will become an entirely new person, the spiritual individual. Otherwise, it is a slow, semi or unconscious process of hit and miss, using this and that technique of Appa's when applicable. A life plan of his teachings that incorporates a way to hold down the negative and uplift the positive shows sincerity. It will enable personal and spiritual progress, even evolution, marked by constant evocation of LUCK.

Just the other day I decided to be positive in my attitudes for the rest of my life, holding down certain specific negative ones, like anger, irritation, sarcasm, and several others. I even though of catching and halting the tiniest negative that arises inside me. If I do it AS A SERIOUS PLAN, doing it sincerely with full effort, it will be a breakthrough. Otherwise, I will have to go through the hit and miss cycles of ordinary life; even with my knowledge of Karmayogi's principles.

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Attitudes and Life Response (instantaneous success)
(main)

Change an Attitude to Make Life Instantly Respond

We are filled with attitudes acquired from our family, friends, and the environment. They are also in the very fiber of our being, inherited through our genes. Many of our attitudes are fine, while others are less than stellar. However, if we can identify a bad attitude, and make an effort to change it, we will not only raise our consciousness, but life will suddenly respond with unexpected bursts of good fortune.

A salesperson was intimidated about meeting a very large customer. He felt that the effort was a waste of time since the company was too large and could never be penetrated. As it turned out, he didn't get the sale. However, a number of months later, he changed his attitude about approaching such larger-type customers. The very day that he changed his attitude, the very same customer, who turned him down months earlier, gave him a huge order.

As we see, changing a negative attitude has an amazing way of attracting positive conditions from life. We call this phenomenon "life response." It is a power available to us every moment of the day, meaning that our ability to evoke the miraculous is always at our disposal.

Life Responds to the Quality of Our Attitudes
Life responds to the quality of our attitudes. If we reverse ourselves from a negative one, or move from a neutral to a more positive one,  life tends to quickly respond with sudden good fortune. Likewise, if we take a positive view of a situation, life also tends to respond quickly in our favor.

The Sublime Result of Turning an Attitude Positive
The other day I was driving along down the highway, when I turned on my radio. I tuned into a show that gives career advice, which is on every weekend. I listen to the program on occasion, admiring the host's insights into many matters, but sometimes being put off by a certain line of thought he occasionally drifts into.

This time as I began to listen to the show, I caught myself and decided not to indulge my annoyance with his occasional outbursts, and remain still in my feelings. Within a few seconds, he began to speak of matters I had never heard from him before, including the power of self-givingness, of not trying to force your ideas on others, the importance of listening, and so forth. I was utterly astonished that he would say such things, for he had never expressed such sentiments before when I was listening!

I was once again privy to the life response power of controlling a wanting attitude. At the point we withdrew an annoyance or misgiving, positive conditions suddenly present themselves. Not only does it come in ways in ways you would never have imagined, but a sweet richness envelops your person and you are left with the thought that life would be infinitely sublime if you took to such efforts all of the time.

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Shedding Negative Attitudes Instantly Attract Success
Attitudes are the nexus of success. Other factors -- such as skill, knowledge, and hard work; things we believe are critical -- are relatively less important. That's because when we change an attitude, life immediately responds in our favor through a subtle process, attracting instantaneous success. Friends and associates have of mine have experienced this phenomenon hundreds if not thousands of times over the years, instantly propelling them forward in their domain. For example-

• An employee shifted away from her negative attitude toward a ruthless boss, and he quickly and most unexpectedly left the company.

• A man overcame his reluctance to work weekends at a retail computer store, and when he came in, he attracted the largest sale of his life.

• An owner overcame a limited attitude that he can only sell to the local market, and revenues quickly doubled, when previously, despite his aspiration, sales barely moved an inch.

• A man went ahead and finally dealt with a floundering project that had cost him time and effort without pay, and as a result, a 6-month backache suddenly disappeared.

• A business owner changed his attitude about getting repeat customers -- previously he garnered none -- and quickly attracted the biggest pharma company in the world, who wanted him to repeat his sales training 100 to 1000 times throughout the world.

When we shed a negative attitude about others, work, life, or ourselves, life immediately starts working on our behalf. Shedding a wanting attitude moves us from the local domain of limitation to the universal plane where the infinite potentials of life rush in. When we make these "reversals of consciousness," we align with the very best of conditions, which we experience as instances of sudden good fortune. It is the phenomenon of life response in action!

Attitudes and Inner-Outer Correspondence
Life reflects on the outside the attitudes we feel and express within ourselves. For example, if we dislike our boss, there will be tension and friction; and if we reverse that, then we will create a more harmonious relationship. What we do not normally recognize, however, is that this reversal attracts sudden good fortune, such as the sudden resolution of a problem, or an opportunity suddenly coming our way. We call this phenomenon a "Life Response," and it is occurring all the time. To see them, all we have to do is look around, examine the outcomes in our lives, and see how our positive or negative attitudes attracted them. Now we can avoid the wanting ones and increase the positive ones to attract a never ending series of fortunate events.

Life Response and Attitudes
Beneath the surface of our outer perceptions of life, there is a deeper awareness, where we experience that everything in life is related, connected, and one. That is the case because we are born of the same spirit and substance. In that state of deeper awareness we come to see that there are powers, forces, vibrations, and energies that move in the world. When we have negative feelings towards another, we attract corresponding and related negative forces and energies, which come to us as negative fortune and circumstances. When we give them up our negative propensities, such as bad will toward another, the reverse occurs, and we experience sudden, seemingly miraculous good fortune. These positive response to our change seem to come from out of nowhere; but they are in fact directly related to our own inner change. Such results seem to defy all of our normal perceptions of logic, our commonly held notions of cause and effect, and space and time. 

Reverse Your Wanting Attitudes to Make Life Respond
The majority of the problems we encounter in life originate in our wanting attitudes. However, if we reverse ourselves and make them positive, life can suddenly and abundantly respond. For example, one woman gave up her ill will toward her co-workers, and suddenly attracted a full-time job position -- her first in nearly a decade of trying. Action Plan: Consider the negative attitudes you have towards other, and towards life itself. (Examples are dishonesty, ill will, disrespect, callousness, arrogance, intolerance, suspicion, obsequiousness, indifference, reluctance, low self-esteem, pessimism, impracticality, irresponsibility, pridefulness, laziness, and procrastination.) Then make a concerted effort to overcome one or two of the most problematic ones. When you do so, the infinite potentials of life will rush to your doorstep!

Change an Attitude to Make Life Instantly Respond
We are filled with the attitudes that we acquire from our family, friends, and the environment. They are also in the very fiber of our being, inherited through our genes. Many of our attitudes are fine, while others are less than stellar. However, if we can identify a bad attitude, and make an effort to change it, we will find that life will suddenly respond to our efforts, and bring us good fortune.

A salesperson was intimidated about meeting a very large customer. He felt that the effort was a waste of time since the company was too large and could never be penetrated. As it turned out he didn't get the sale. However, a number of months later he changed his attitude about approaching such larger-type customers. The very day that he changed his attitude, the very same customer, who turned him down, gave him a huge order!

As we can see, the power of a positive or a changed attitude has an amazing way of attracting positive responses from life. We call this phenomenon "life response." Whenever we change our inner attitudes and consciousness, life has a most astounding and miraculous way of responding positively and instantaneously in kind. Life brings success, fortune, and joy to those who make this psychological adjustment.

The Power of Changing Our Attitudes
Since changes in attitude have a particularly powerful tendency to invoke sudden good fortune, it would be worth knowing what our own wanting ones are, and then make the concerted effort to overcome them.

Generally speaking, we can identify three types of wanting attitudes -- those concerning work and life, those involving other individuals, and those relating to our own selves.

Examples of negative attitude about work and life include an unwillingness to be fully engaged in the work at hand, procrastinating, not caring about the quality of our efforts, being lazy, and being cynical. Examples of negative attitudes towards others is being hostile and harboring ill-will to another, and being jealous. Examples of negative attitudes about ourselves is having low self-esteem and self-confidence.  

The good news is that if you can identify two or three negative attitudes in your life, and overcome them, life will suddenly move towards you with overwhelming good fortune.

-One woman who was working as a temporary employee for years overcame her negative attitude toward a co-worker, which suddenly attracted a full time position, her first after ten years of trying.

-Another individual overcame his reluctance to work weekends, which attracted the biggest sale and commission of his life, catapulting him into a life long career in that field.

-A third individual overcame his reluctance to do an unflattering but necessary task, which attracted a new position that enabled him to change the course of financial history.

Life does have this extraordinary capacity to respond to our changes in consciousness within -- particularly our wanting attitudes. This magic-like response is what I call a "Life Response."

So why not pick out one or two wanting attitudes that you have been expressing, and make the effort overcome them. Like the individuals above, you will be astounded by the results -- amazed when life suddenly begins to cooperate from all quarters!

The 1000% Solution
Ever since I purchased my new computer with Windows Vista a year ago, I have been very pleased with its performance. There has been one little quirk however. Every time I start up the computer, it creates a new version of the printer driver through a series of dialogue boxes that I have to click my way through. It was not only an annoyance that occurred every time the system loaded, but it would cause me to have to pick the right driver before I printed any document from the computer.

It turns out that I purchased this printer several months before I purchased my new Vista-based computer. Since Vista generally works best with new hardware and software built for it, the fact that I had these quirks with the pre-Vista printer was not surprising. Still I managed to muddle my way through over the past year. Recently however I decided that it was time to eliminate these minor but annoying quirks by purchasing a new printer that would be fully compatible with Vista.

At the same time there was another situation going on. It turns out that I refer potential project management software clients to a local technology company in my area. They are a fine organization with great expertise and goodwill, but are generally lax in making their payments. It is not that they are unwilling to pay, but they seem to be unable to keep their records up to date. Plus, they seem to have problems communicating necessary information to the right person. In any case, it is always up to me to remind them of the money they owe me. This even after we recently had a lunch meeting where they told me about a new system they were implementing to tackle this very problem! Well it turns out that they owed me a relatively small sum of around $350-$400.

Now back to the printer situation. Recently I made the decision to purchase the new Vista-compatible printer from Amazon, and unload my older printer. I expected the new printer to arrive in about a week to 10 days, but instead it arrived sooner. In fact, when I came home from some chores last night, I was surprised to see the printer delivered at my doorstep. And so that night, though late, I decided to install the printer. After unpacking the box and setting up the hardware, I had serious trouble installing the software. When I ran it from my CD-player, it made a terrible whirring sound, and then five minutes into the installation, it came up with a fatal error message. I restarted and tried again, and it failed once more. That meant that I had to call technical support late into the evening to resolve the problem.

When I spoke with the woman there, it did not seem very promising, as she seemed to be merely following a script. As I was tired, I thought to myself: ''Oh the HP printers just don't work right with Vista, as do many other things."¯ In anguish I even said this to her at one point. Fortunately, she did not react to my cry in the dark, and calmly continued with her work. Skeptical and anguished, I decided at one point to give up all my negative attitudes about the matter, and surrender to her capacity to resolve the problem. She then had me download the software over the Web and install it. Though it took a while, it worked flawlessly. Not too long after, the printer also worked perfectly. Plus, I now had none of those irritating dialogue boxes at startup that plagued me for the past year, nor any of the printing issues related to having multiple drivers. I clearly saw how my reversal from the negative to a right attitude had attracted these positive conditions.

The next morning I got up and then checked my email. It was a message from the company I make referrals to; the one I described above. It was a note from the president, who told me that everyone there had been busy and only now had they gotten around to paying the bill they owed me. That was encouraging. However, when I examined the amount more closely, I saw that it was not for $350-$400, but it was for $3540! I.e. 10 times the original amount! I wondered what was could have caused this, and then saw that the work I had referred them for one of the largest companies in the US had unexpectedly increased tremendously in the last several months

Instantly I understood the real cause of this extraordinary response. I saw that the vast increase in the amount was directly related to my change of attitude the night before; when I calmed myself, shed my angst and cynicism, and surrendered to the capacity of the technical support person. By shifting from doubt to faith, life responded not only by easily resolving my printer problem, but by attracting a payment the next morning that was 10 times the amount I expected. Life not only fulfilled my aspiration for payment, but exceeded it by 1000%

Affirmation of Position
A close friend and I have been working on a project of a lifetime. There are endless discussions on the matter, with many side issues debated. The other day I expressed an opinion on an episode of a TV series that related to one of the topics, but my friend in response took a decidedly different point of view. I responded to his statement curtly, but non-aggressively, reaffirming my own. It was not that he fully disagreed with my position, but had a very different one. I felt somehow that he failed to address my own, and so my assertiveness and ego rose to the fore. I held onto this feeling throughout the remainder of the day and over night.

The next morning, I recalled the situation and took a different tact. I called to the Divine and asked that it relieve me of my assertiveness and ego, and instead create an atmosphere of harmony. One minute later, I opened my email program where I found but one message. It was my friend responding again. When I finished reading his comment, I was astounded, for he had in essence taken my point of view, even adding a creative dimension.

I saw the dual power of moving from ego and separateness -- in essence a wanting attitude -- to one of harmony, and then offering that aspiration to the Higher Power. The result was that I attracted a small but powerful outcomes that struck me as nothing short of miraculous.

Complete, 180 Degree Turnaround
One day recently, a contact of mine who I had been giving advice to told me about an episode involving a close friend of his. It turns out, my contact's acquaintance worked for a manufacturing group in India in a technical position. The friend is supposedly an emotional person, and had been upset because he was not appreciated by his superiors. He was constantly complaining that he was not getting his due recognition, and therefore had been threatening to resign from the company.

Fortunately, the cooler head of my contact prevailed when he convinced his friend to take a day off to consider the matter further. He also asked him to shift his attitude from hostility and bitterness to having positive thoughts and feelings towards his superiors and the organization as a whole.

Well it turned out that the very next day, my contact learned that his friend had suddenly and most unexpectedly received a bonus of 4.85 Laks (~2000 US dollars, a substantial sum in India) from the company! It was a stunning development, and a sure sign of the phenomenon of life response at work. Equally remarkable was the fact that he garnered the sum during the current world economic crisis when salaries were being decreased and people laid off.

When I read the story, I commented to my contact that neutralizing a negative attitude will always evoke a positive response. Moreover, if one goes a step further and turns negativity into positive goodwill, as the friend did here, then the response can be overwhelming.

Several weeks later, I received another note indicating that there was an update to the story. My contact wrote that he implored his friend to continue his inner effort of inner goodwill towards his manager, the CEO, and the organization; and once again, which the friend again took it up in full. The friend then called the contact back to tell him that another miracle had taken place. It turns out that he was suddenly and most unexpectedly asked by the CEO of the company to make a major presentation. Not only was it successful, but it was very much appreciated by his manager. Thus, he had now made a complete, 180 degree turnaround from bitterness and feeling underappreciated to garnering full recognition by his superiors!

In this case, we see how one individual showed inner courage by following the sage advice of his friend, thereby turning around a negative situation to its complete opposite. That same power is of course available to each of us. All we have to do is determine where we are expressing a wanting attitude, and then make an effort to neutralize it, or better yet turn it into its opposite. When we do, we too will experience a miraculous-like outcome. Moreover, if we take to this approach on a regular basis, miracles will be our constant companion.

Keep in mind that the solution to the overwhelming majority of problems we encounter is inward, not outward. When we shift our emotions away from insecurity, ranker, and bitterness, we align with and attract the most positive of conditions. And if we go a step further and turn those feelings into their complete opposite -- e.g. from resentment to active, positive good will -- then we attract conditions that simply overwhelm, as was the case of the friend who saw his deepest aspirations in his work life fulfilled.

Turning a Problem into a Vast Opportunity
Last week I relearned an important lesson of life. If you approach a perceived negative situation in the right spirit, you can unleash a powerful positive opportunity. Here is the story:

After the recent Palestinian-Israeli flare up with Hamas, I was beginning to feel far less sympathy for the latter. Though no supporter of terrorism, I felt that Israel was once more expressing their insincerity by fighting rather than negotiating when they had the opportunity to do so in the quiet period before. Though I have seen the same pattern over the years, this time I was perhaps a little too troubled by the situation.

That day, my company received an inquiry about one of the primary services we offer. The party was interested in seeing a demo of our online training application. In response, we sent her a link so the organization could review it for three working days. Though she was pleased with my response, she asked that the term be extended several days because they do not work on Friday and Saturday in Israel. Understanding the issue, I agreed to the extension. I also now understood something else: the subtle connection between my previous inner emotional outburst about the Palestinian situation and the sudden arrival of an email message from this representative of an Israeli company. It struck me as the type of synchronicity and a confluence of events I had experienced a hundred times before, but this time with a somewhat negative edge to it.

Several days later, she sent another email with her verdict about the demo she went through. She indicated that though she admired its features, especially the depth and breadth of content, she had some serious reservations, especially the fact that the text was riddled with typos, and that many of the graphics were muddled and hard to read. As a result, now I really saw the connection between my earlier emotional outburst and this criticism from a potential customer in Israel! In fact, when I looked at her signature stamp, I realized that she was a technical writer for the company's IT department -- not the normal person who contacts us about purchasing our training. In essence, her comments were not only a direct punch in the gut, but came from someone who ordinarily spends her time examining such issues. In other words, I had attracted the perfect person to criticize our product!

The question then was what would be my reaction to this direct assault. Being human, my first inclination was to lash out at the criticism. I thought, well if she didn't like the product, she should have just rejected it, and avoided criticism. Fortunately, I gained control of my egotistic, self-justifying line of reasoning, and began to take a more rational approach. I then reasoned that since I had already seen the connection between the locale of this company and my earlier inner emotional outburst, I needed to reverse my attitude and open myself up to the truth of her words. Besides there was still an opportunity to sell her the product if we made the changes she suggested.

So I took a deep breath, pushed aside my earlier combative approach, and seriously considered the validity of her recommendations. After perusing our site in search of problems, and seeing the awful truth in her criticism, I immediately began to take up her suggestions. And so over the course of the next several days, I made considerable changes to the text of the site -- correcting grammar, punctuation, and typos, while inquiring into ways to deliver better on-screen graphics. In fact, I threw myself into the work, and after a short while, realized that I was enjoying the effort!

Before delivering the punch line, let me give you one more piece of information. The product I have been referring to is an online software training application that we have developed for Microsoft's project management system. For the last five years, my company has been focusing on it exclusively. Well, after I completed the above three-day effort, I received a solitary email in my Inbox. It was from an individual at a company offering its own online project management software. They were interested in having our firm do training and consulting on their online product throughout our region. At first, I balked at the idea, because the product appeared somewhat flimsy compared to the robust Microsoft offering. But then when I saw a demo, I was stunned how powerful, full-featured, integrated, and easy to use it was. It was using breakthrough technology that in many ways now surpassed Microsoft's offering!

Now suddenly my business was presented with the largest opportunity for new services in a decade. I clearly saw the potential now to double or triple my earnings. And it all came about because rather than react to a negative situation (her detailed analysis of all that was wrong with our current product), I held my feelings in check, and did all that she suggested. The result is that I attracted perhaps our best long-term opportunity in years.

When we shift our attitude in a negative situation to the positive, we harness an awesome power. In essence, we use the energy of the negative, reverse its polarity, and then align with and attract the very best of conditions. Or, as in this case, evoke the biggest business opening in years. Of course, you too can do the same in similar situations in your own life.

Change Here, Fulfill (or Super Fulfill) There
When we shift our consciousness to the positive in one area, we often move life in another area, whether it turns an aspiration unfulfilled into its fulfillment, or an expected fulfillment into its super-fulfillment.

Overcome Negative Feeling Toward Another
If you give up a negative attitude toward someone or some situation, you will see a tremendously positive life response; e.g. you might get a promotion, develop never before demonstrated capacities, be surrounded by nicer people, etc.

Untitled
Life reflects on the outside the inner attitudes you have on the on the inside. Life for you is in essence a reflection of your inner perceptions of the world. We can surely see the causality between such negative attitudes and the world around us. If we dislike our boss, there will be tension and friction as a result. This is a direct cause and effect relationship that is logical to our minds. What is not so logical however is the sudden, magical ways life responds to such changes in attitudes. We call this phenomenon where life positively, suddenly, abundantly, and miraculously responds to our inner change of heart and emotion, "Life Response."

Overcoming Our Negative Attitudes
-If we can identify our own unique individual negative attitudes, and make the concerted effort to overcome them, not only can we create the right conditions for greater achievement and joy in life, but also under the right conditions we can invoke continuous sudden and abundant response from life.

-If our negative attitudes are acquired through the acquisition of subjective mental opinions, supported by our vital energies, then the process of reversing our negative attitudes would occur in an opposite movement - i.e. by shedding our subjective opinions and replacing them with objectives truths.

Ego-reversal and Right Attitudes
When we move from an ego-supported conscious to non-ego, our negative opinions, false beliefs, etc. tend to break down, we perceive become more open to the truer truth of things, which in effect causes our negative attitudes to dissolve, which under the right conditions can suddenly elicit a powerful positive response from life.

Two Inner Approaches that Will Catapult You to a Whole New Level of Success
Man complains that he is not as successful as he would like, yet does not understand that his inner condition is what directly blocks further accomplishment in life. There are at least two major approaches to resolving this problem. One is to look at negative circumstances occurring outside one's self, and make the necessary corresponding inner adjustment; the other is to do an inner evaluation of one's condition in life, find what is wanting, and make the necessary change. Either will attract instantaneous good fortune from the world around us.

In the first approach, I identify a negative circumstance that is happening in my life, and I relate it to a wanting attitude or behavior within. I then change that negative, and as a result, life will suddenly respond with good fortune. This is the principle of "inner-outer correspondence" in action; that if you change the inner, life will suddenly respond outside ourselves. For example, one woman who saw that her ill-will towards another had precipitated negative circumstances in a completely different area of her life, decided to change her feelings towards this woman. She actually came up and congratulated him on winning a big company prize. As a result, not only did she create good will with this person, but the organization in which they all worked suddenly from out of nowhere bestowed a very expensive gift on every employee, including the woman who changed her attitude! This is one approach to accomplishing vastly, beyond one's current limitations.

The other approach is to "take inventory" of one's self, identify several wanting qualities, and make the persevering effort to overcome them. For example, I evaluate myself in such areas as; level of cleanliness and orderliness, necessary skills, negative attitude or harmful assumptions, bad habits, whether or not I am psychologically strong, whether the work I am doing is really what I want, whether I am fully accepting what life demands of me, whether I have a clear direction in life, whether I am emotionally balanced, and so forth. I thus conclude that my living and work space are completely disorganized, that I have no focus in my life (I am scattered in my intentions), that I procrastinate, and that I tend to be unpunctual. I then develop a comprehensive plan to overcome these and carry it out with a passionate and determined effort. Life then suddenly responds miraculous-like with instances of good fortune.

It should also be pointed out that if we open to the spiritual Force at each point, we can literally move to the top of our field in extremely short order; e.g. in months instead of years or even decades. Thus, in these ways, life becomes a never-ending series of instances of "instantaneous miraculousness." I call this phenomenon "Life Response." A great secret is currently being revealed to the world.   

Applying Higher Attitudes, Overcoming Negative Ones Attracts Positive Life Response
One can always develop better personal attitudes; towards one's self, towards others, towards things, and towards life. Any effort to improve one's attitude invariably invokes sudden positive responses from life. This is perhaps the most frequently seen cause of positive life response. (Likewise, we see similar results for shedding limiting habits, opinions, prejudices, etc.)

When you reverse your emotions, attitudes, opinions, the response is very rapid, even instantaneous. 

LIFE RESPONSE EXAMPLES
-A part-time employed woman stops her distain for certain other people in her work group. Thereafter, she suddenly gets a full time job, her job in a decade. Moreover, her career develops steadily thereafter. She also notices that those around her, including her close family members, are also suddenly having very positive life experiences.

-A salesperson was intimidated about meeting a huge client. He felt that the effort was a waste of time, and as it turned out he didn't get the sale. A number of months later he changed his attitude about approaching large customers. The very day that he changed his attitude the very same customer who he originally went to visit gave a huge order!

-A man met his uncle every few years, and each time it turned contentious or tense when discussing politics and family matters. Before the next time they met he decided to withdraw any expectation or negative feeling (and consecrated, i.e. offered it to the spirit the event). Everything went perfectly in the meeting; without any hostility or tenseness. In fact, there was a sense of pervasive joy and harmony. There were also a number of sub-life responses as well! 

-A woman had visited the Mesa Verde national park in the US 30 years ago when pregnant with her only child. There she saw an ancient Pueblo Indian spiralling symbol of Infinity chiselled into a wall. She is motivated 30 years hence to return to the vast park. When she gets there she looks hither and fro through many areas of park for this symbol, but finds nothing. Now she is in a special area of ruins that is particularly compelling. She looks everywhere for the symbol, and again has found nothing. She has now gotten totally frustrated in her attempt to find it. She decides to give up the quest. She then walks a few feet, turns around, and there sees the symbol that has eluded her and been on her mind for 30 years. It gave her enormous pleasure and happiness. (When one gives up an intense desire, one enables it to occur.  So long as she intensely desired it in frustration, it eluded her. She gave up her negative attitude about the situation.)

-An individual who does much photography of nature notices that whenever he has a hasty, overly impulsive desire to take a photo, it inevitably comes out poorly. (negative response)

Offering Wanting Attitudes to the Spirit to Evoke Positive Response
We feel that our opinions and attitudes are always right. First of all we have to stop saying this. As long as we feel we are right we are fully identified with our ego. There are no right or wrong attitudes, there are only attitudes that help or hinder our growth. Positive attitudes help our lives expand. Negative attitudes make it contract. We can pray that the negative attitude should change. The attitudes we have created are one of the ways by which the Infinite has become finite. Our job now is to reverse the direction and make the finite Infinite. The way we do that is to reverse our attitudes of which we have thousands. There is a method that can work for all of us. Wherever we feel a strong reaction, without trying to justify it in any way, let us say "I offer this attitude to You, Mother. Let me give it up. Let me make a progress."Call Mother at that point to reverse it, to dissolve that attitude. There is infinite prosperity behind each of our opinions, attitudes and habits. Each time we come forward to give one of them up, we release an enormous energy that translates in our lives as the disappearance of a problem or the sudden appearance of a great opportunity. Surrendering these aspects of our ego is the surest way to invite infinite prosperity into our lives. (Ragini)

The Right and Wrong in Attitude and Acts
The right or wrong does not lie in the ACT, it dwells in one's attitude. (MSS)

Change an Opinion
Change one opinion of yours, a miserable life becomes a happy life. (MSS)

Sincere Personal and Spiritual Growth through an Organized Plan
"The golden RULE is not to achieve, but to preserve what is achieved. We have to observe ourselves very closely and explain to ourselves the nature of our acts. We always think of the ideal to which we should reach, which is good in itself; but let us know that it is only a thought. From where we are to where we should go there are a great many steps. Let us know all these conditions and find out what is the immediate next step. If one is to act, if one is to do the right thing, if one is sincere to himself, all that one can do is know this next step and take it. Rationally that is the only thing he can ever do. The rest he can only talk about."

This is the process of creation for the aspiring spiritual individual. Goals of self-improvement considered and perceived, knowing the strategies to get there, and acting on them is that process. It is for those serious in his endeavor. Then this person will become an entirely new person, the spiritual individual. Otherwise, it is a slow, semi or unconscious process of hit and miss, using this and that technique of Appa's when applicable. A life plan of his teachings that incorporates a way to hold down the negative and uplift the positive shows sincerity. It will enable personal and spiritual progress, even evolution, marked by constant evocation of LUCK.

Just the other day I decided to be positive in my attitudes for the rest of my life, holding down certain specific negative ones, like anger, irritation, sarcasm, and several others. I even though of catching and halting the tiniest negative that arises inside me. If I do it AS A SERIOUS PLAN, doing it sincerely with full effort, it will be a breakthrough. Otherwise, I will have to go through the hit and miss cycles of ordinary life; even with my knowledge of Karmayogi's principles.

 

Maintaning a Positive Attitude in Challenging Situations

Taking a Positive View of Things in 'House of Eliott'
In 'House of Eliott' one dimension of Life Response -- i.e. sudden good fortune -- is clearly revealed. It is the power of taking a positive attitude in a crossroad moment. E.g. on numerous occasions when Evie was confronted with a situation, serious or not so, we see that she takes the more positive, often optimistic point of view. Life immediately responds with positive results thereafter. Positive attitudes expressed as optimism, forgiveness, etc. attract powerful response from life. It happens in critical or the most mundane of situations.

In examining life response, one can readily see how a transition from a negative attitude to a neutral or positive one will attract life response. (E.g. in Pride and Prejudice we see Darcy, Eliza, and Mr. Bennet make such transitions.) Here in HofE we see quite clearly seen how simple moment to moment positive reactions and decisions to circumstance attract the sudden onset of positive conditions for that individual (including the collective they are part of). A situation presents itself as somewhat problematic, and the person has a positive take on things. Life responds with sudden good fortune. It is not a transition of that person's consciousness from the negative to the positive; but taking what could be deemed as a problematic situation, and taking the positive view of it. Such situations and the positive reactions and choices of individuals (in particular focusing on Evie here), and the powerful positive response of life is readily portrayed in HofE.

When there is a very difficult situation, and a person reacts to the intensity with calm and equality -- thereby attracting luck -- that is one thing; but the opportunity to take a positive view in common life experiences where there are lesser or greater challenges to ours sensibilities, is another. The latter occurs so much more often, and thus affords us endless possibilities to attract life response.

We could list out 10-20 of such circumstance in a day and see how we have reacted. We can learn from that. Then on another day we can make the effort to react positively in each of those situations, and see how life responds for us in the hours and days that follow. The response can even happen instantaneously.

Dan in Real Life
Life presents us with many challenges, some of which arise through negative circumstance. In particular, it can be quite difficult to remain positive when the social atmosphere is wanting -- e.g. if people around us are behaving in ways that are detrimental or even harmful. And yet those who are able to maintain the right outlook in these circumstances, who are immune to and do not participate in the negative social activity, gain an interesting power over life, as they tend to quickly attract positive conditions. Let me illustrate with a film I watched the other day.

In Dan in Real Life, Dan Burns is a newspaper advice columnist, a widower, and a father of three daughters in the New Jersey suburbs. One day Dan and his children take a trip to the Rhode Island home of his parents for their annual family get together. After they arrive at the large house, situated on a bluff overlooking the bay, Dan takes some time off and goes to a local bookstore. There he meets a woman named Marie who mistakes Dan for an employee. He then proceeds to gather up several books for her, and in the process, hits it off with her. Suddenly love blossoms.

When Dan arrives back at the house, he lets his family know that he has found a potentially very special person. They are thrilled to hear this since it has been three years since he lost his wife. However, a short while later, his brother's new girl friend arrives on the scene, and it turns out to be none other than Marie! She too was on her way to the family get together when she met Dan at the bookstore.

There then begins a tense situation in which his brother and Marie are somewhat romantically interacting at the home, even as Dan is now has fallen in love with her. After several days, the situation becomes unbearable for both. Because he appears so miserable, Dan's mother suggests that he call up a local girl on a blind date and ask her to come to the gathering. When the rest of the group learns that she is coming, they recall that she was a physically unattractive young girl, and so they begin mocking her for being an ugly duckling. At one point, they go as far as to launch into a rollicking, impromptu sing-along in which poke fun of "miss piggy face."¯ All except Dan, that is.

A few minutes later, so-called ''piggy face"¯ arrives at the house, and shockingly turns out to be a beautiful woman. Immediately, Dan and her are physically attracted to one another. As a result, Marie becomes very jealous, which has the further effect of turning the emerging, partial love she felt for Dan into a full-blown blossoming of her emotions. This in turn compels her to truly seek out the relationship with him, once she breaks off with his brother. In the end, Dan and Marie fall deeply love and are blissfully married.

The moral of the story? Because Dan did not give into and participate in the mocking sing-along of his soon to be arriving date ''piggy face,"¯ he attracted instead a beautiful woman. Furthermore, her arrival compelled Marie, the woman he loved, to commit to a relationship, which culminated in their marriage. That is the power of remaining positive in a negative situation -- in this case, in the face of social pressure to act falsely. The effect is that this person, the exception in the crowd, is propelled to the heights through complete emotional fulfillment. When we follow our own positive instincts and do not give into the social imperative of the herd, we release positive energies that attract the very best of conditions. In that way, we develop "true individuality," which tends to lure the infinite potentials of life in our direction.

The Power of a Generally Positive Attitude
Success -- i.e. luck -- will flow in every direction when our attitude is generally positive. It not only brings us constant luck and leads us in the right direction, but it is infectious and affects others.

In the wonderful English story 'Pollyanna,' a young girl sees everything in a positive light, and as a result, everyone around her from the stodgy, grumpy, and cynical are charmed. In fact, their lives are suddenly turned around through the wisdom of this happy individual. That is the power of having a continuous positive attitude; that can-do spirit; that observance of life from the brighter and truer side. It even sees negative as positives in disguise; as great positive potential ready to burst forth.

Naturally, The Mother's Force gains special entry and has greater effectivity through such an instrument.

Right Attitude that Attract Success with Indian Call Centers

While others have known the opposite, I have had very positive experiences with technical support originating in India. I can only attribute it to one thing; the deep respect I have had for the Indian people, and the close collaboration I have had with them in commerce and deed and thought.

When your have positive, supporting feelings towards others -- even if their capacities are limited -- positive circumstance will still invariably follow. That's because life always responds  to your positive intentions and attitude with sudden good fortune. Hence the Indians have unfailing solved the most intractable of my technical problems. We can remember that lesson each time we interact with any person or party whose help we need; or for that matter, any problem or circumstance in life.

Also See Entries on Cheerfulness

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Opinions, Preferences
(main)

On Opinions vs. Facts
Obviously opinion is ours, not necessarily the fact of the situation. There is a report about a theft. It comes to us. As we hear of it, our past experience receives the facts - assuming they are correct facts - and arrives at a conclusion.

That becomes our opinion. Our opinion of an event reported to us is our version of it in the light of past experience, valid to us only. To know the facts of the situation, one needs to shed that opinion. He who desires an open mind must be able to prevent opinion formation. He who forms an opinion prejudges the event. It becomes a prejudice. To insist on that prejudice is to have a closed mind. (MSS)

Subjectivity and Opinions
Non-objective, subjective conclusions and beliefs about facts of information are our opinions about those facts. An opinion is not based on objective truth, but on a subjective judgment that may or may not be true.

Lack of Knowledge, Proof and Opinions
An opinion is a belief or conclusion held with confidence but not substantiated by positive knowledge or proof. (American Heritage Dictionary)

How Opinions Form

• Mind observes the environment by the senses.

• The senses carry sense impressions of the outside to the mind.

• A vitalised mind accepts the impressions as facts.

• Mentalised mind separates these impressions and extracts the pure facts out of it which are organised by the brain into opinions or decisions. (MSS)

Mind and Opinions
The character of the mind is divisive; its sight is partial and one-sided. Its opinions are formed on the basis of sensual input.

Limitations of Opinions
One must realise that opinions are limiting factors in the mind's growth and must be given up for good. It is true even in ordinary mental life. But it is very common that men are proud of their opinions and treat them as a valuable possession. (MSS)

Opinions Bar Success
Opinions are a bar
Opinions are concentrated energy.
Opinions concentrate energy AWAY from other activities.
Withdrawing the opinion, all the negative energy is at work.
Hence greater results. (MSS)

Overcoming Opinions by Offering Them Up
Offer up to the Divine the opinions and thoughts that are there in the mind.

Ego-reversal that Overcomes Negative Opinions
When we move from an ego-supported conscious to non-ego, our negative opinions, false beliefs, etc. tend to break down, we perceive become more open to the truer truth of things, which in effect causes our negative attitudes to dissolve, which under the right conditions can suddenly elicit a powerful positive response from life.

Life Response and Opinions
When you reverse your emotions, attitudes, opinions, the response is very rapid, even instantaneous. 

Fully Positive Opinions
All your thoughts, opinions, attitudes and motives concerning the activity should be fully positive. By "positive" we mean free of all negative elements, such as falsehood, dishonesty, exaggeration, selfishness, jealousy, anger, irritation, impatience, greed, fear, laziness, etc. (MSS)

Opinions and Attitudes
-Our opinions are the root cause of our negative attitudes. When these opinions are reinforced by our feelings and emotions, our attitudes are born.

-A negative attitude takes shape when our subjective, non-fully rational and logical opinions are endorsed by our vital emotions and feelings. In a positive attitude, the opinions are "less-opinionated," as our perceptions are more in touch with the inherent truth of things.

Attitudes and Opinions
-An attitude is born when an opinion is endorsed by the emotions. (MSS)

-Attitudes are vital propensities endorsed by opinions, thus making opinion the spearhead. (MSS)

-The process of reversing a negative attitude would occur by shedding our subjective, false opinion about an object, and replacing it with the objectives truth of things. As this broader and more accurate knowledge takes shape in our minds, our negative attitudes would be obliged to change. When our vital emotions and feelings withdraw their support for the old opinions, and begin to support this new, objective view of things, the negative attitude would be fully cancelled.

Overcoming our Blind Spots

After the independence of India and its partition from Pakistan in 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru led the country through its transition to democracy and a new modernity. He was a man deeply committed to his country, with a strong mind and a driving idealism. There has been no greater leader of that emerging Asian nation since.

And yet he was tripped up by one view that he seemed so sure of. He proclaimed that China was the very embodiment of his own high idealism. Unfortunately, he would be disillusioned not long after when in 1962 China invaded and run roughshod over his own beloved country. It was a blind spot of belief for sure.

In the 1920s and 30’s Western idealists railed at the corruption of capitalism, and signs of emerging nationalism and fascism both in their own countries and aboard. They were highly perceptive in their analysis, sounding warnings that the people of the world would fail to heed. Many of these same writers, thinkers, and advocates saw the Soviet Union under Stalin as a real alternative, a potential Paradise on Earth, in opposition to the corruption and greed of a money-driven West. It took Solzhenitsyn’s ‘The Gulag Archipelago’ to fire the first salvos against this view. Since then it has been discovered that Stalin was responsible for the deaths of nearly 30 million people of his fellow citizens. He had that many shot and killed in a reign of terror unknown in the history of the world.

In America, it has been faddish amongst the conservative elite to proclaim that unfettered, laissez-faire capitalism was the salve of the masses. That wealth and profits of the rich would trickle down to the masses below. That theory proved to be a disaster, as we saw from the recent financial crisis that threatened to ruin the economies of the world.

Like nations, peoples, leaders, philosophies, we too as individuals also have blind spots that we are ignorant of and oblivious to. We dearly hold onto one or more critical opinions or beliefs that are in direct contradiction to the truth -- affecting not only our own selves, but the people around us.

Perhaps those closest to us see that blind spot. Or maybe it is someone at a distance who perceives it, yet cannot express it in deference to our feelings. Then who amongst us are willing to confront such “certainties,” challenging their truth worthiness? I am not sure if there is one in a thousand. If there such a person, then that brave soul is intellectually honest and sincere. For after all, who has the gumption to lay out one’s attitudes and values, and deconstruct them to determine their accuracy and truth-value? E.g., who would make the effort to go to that goldmine and fount of information -- the Internet -- and discover the relative or absolute merit of one’s most cherished beliefs? Whether we are a scientist, a leader, an advocate, or a parent, we are likely blind to something significant in our lives. And yet we are also capable of determining its veracity by gathering evidence from the world around us.

There is another approach to overcoming such ruinous blind spots. We can subscribe to an inner, psychological approach I call “taking another man’s point of view.” I.e. the next time you have a conversation or otherwise communicate with someone, make the effort to embrace the other person’s point of view, no matter how far-fetched. See a glimmering of truth in it, while releasing your attachment to your own entrenched position. Doing so indicates an open mind that seeks knowledge and truth in life; that is open to a wider domain of possibilities. In that way, it is a spiritual-like approach to one’s existence.

One interesting result of taking this approach is that it attracts sudden good fortune. For example, let’s say we have been invited to a party by a friend or spouse, but are not inclined to go. Though others have recommended it in the past, we feel certain that it will be a waste of time. However, when we shift from our entrenched opinion and embrace their suggestion, then when you arrive at the reception, several startling conditions present themselves. Not only do you find yourself enjoying yourself, but a long lost friend appears on the scene, energizing you to no end. Best of all, you meet someone who offers you a great opportunity in a field closely related to your own. When you embrace another’s point of view, life opens up and you are catapulted forward.

There is one other way to ascertain a blind spot. In the course of your day, watch for any significant negative conditions that appears in your life. It is a sure sign of something amiss in your being, for everything that appears on the outside is a reflection of your inner condition. For example, if an important project is suddenly cancelled, find the corresponding negative attitude or belief. It is a blind spot that has been there for a while, affecting present and past conditions. 

Deconstructing our beliefs, taking the other person’s point of view, and relating negative outcomes to inner perceptions, are three powerful methods to reveal and overcome our blind spots, which in turn will help us avoid a lot of pain and suffering in life. Will you then be brave and ask a confident, relative, or friend if there is something key that you are blind to? Or will you try to deconstruct several key beliefs to see their truth-value? Or will you fully embrace another's perspective today? Or will you take the time to consider how negative outcomes are direct reflections of wanting attitudes, opinions, and beliefs? If you make that effort, your entire life will be turned around, for nothing has a greater effect than identifying a blind spot and turning it into the light of truth.

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Other (Articles, Thoughts, etc.)
(main)

ARTICLE on the Power of Personal Attitudes
How personal attitudes are key to success and happiness in life.

Thoughts on Having Negative Attitudes

Thoughts about Where Attitudes Take Shape in the Human Makeup

Factors Aside from Attitudes that Enable Great Achievement in Life

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